It’s DIY Time! Finally I have for you once again a DIY project on the blog, because we have built a garden table from old wooden planks themselves. Since we bought our house, we have done so much DIY, but unfortunately I haven’t had the time to show you all these projects and share our experiences with you.
But the most important insight I share with you today right at the beginning: Without the right tools nothing works! Sensible tools really are the be-all and end-all of DIY, and that’s why I’m glad that Bosch Home& Garden as a partner for this project and provided us with the appropriate tools and accessories. I’ll tell you which one it was right now in the materials and tools list. So, here we go!
DIY – build your own garden table from old wooden planks
Materials and tools for the self-made table:
- 4 old wooden planks
- 1 old wooden slat
- 40 – 50 wood screws
- 4 Hairpin table legs
- Oil (I used linseed oil varnish)
- Planer (I used the PHO 2000)
- Grinder (I used the PSM 18 LI)
- Battery saw (I used the NanoBlade saw AdvancedCut 18)
- Cordless drill (I used the PSR 18 LI-2 Ergonomic)
Instructions – How to build a table out of old planks:
To the planer, ready, go! In our case, the construction of the garden table started with the planing of the old wooden planks. Actually, I wanted to keep the rustic look of the beams, but unfortunately the rough surface was not suitable for everyday use. So for the first time we used an electric slicer and I can tell you that we were thrilled with it.
The PHO 2000 simply removes up to 2 mm of wood and makes the old wooden planks shine in new splendor in no time at all. However, we have removed only 1 mm, because I did not want to plane away all the quirks. The table should finally tell its story with all its scratches, holes and dents.
In the next step, we sanded the surface of the beams with the battery-powered multi-sander PSM 18 LI and sandpaper with an 80 grain size. Here, I was actually mainly concerned with smoothing the edges and smaller furrows, which one can plane in as an inexperienced planer newbie already times. The edges I have rounded a bit, so that our daughter can not hurt it so quickly.
Genial with this sander is that it is cordless and with its 18V battery also has decent power. Since the cordless drill and saw we use are also part of the Power for ALL system, a single battery can be used for all the tools in the 18-volt series and changed in a snap. This is really practical, because so I could quickly exchange the batteries with each other, if one had to be charged. In addition, you save space, because there are no batteries and chargers lying around everywhere and on top of that it is easy on the wallet, because you don’t always have to buy the batteries for the tool, but can use one for all devices of the Power for ALL system.
Then we sawed our bracing for the underside of the wooden planks to size. For this we chose two cross braces and a diagonal brace, so that on the bottom side a Z is created so to speak. Again, we simply took an old slat that we still had – so all we had to do was get screws and the table legs.
From the lath I made the two cross braces ca. 6 cm shorter than the table width sawed and then connected with the diagonal. With the AdvancedCut 18 we were able to cut the batten very quickly. I love the fact that it is ready to use anywhere with a battery and thanks to the NanoBlade blade technology not only looks like a small chainsaw, but also allows vibration-free sawing.
Now I pre-drilled the holes for the screw connections with a pre-drilling attachment and the cordless drill, because then the screw heads disappear in the wood and the screwing goes even easier by hand. Whereas with our totally warped wooden planks the screwing needed three men, so that we got them halay straight (one stood at one end, the other at the other and I screwed in the middle). The rest will be done by the moisture, which will cause the table to settle when it stands outside for a few days.
In the next step we have already mounted the table legs left and right of the Z-bracing. Here it is of course important that the table protrusion is the same on the left and right side, so that the table does not tip over.
Finally, we sawed a 5 cm hole for our parasol in the middle of the table top with the help of a hole saw. This was still briefly sanded at the top of the edge with abrasive sponges before the self-built table was oiled in the final step.
And there you have it, the DIY garden table made from old planks of wood that will be the site of many a BBQ and coffee gathering in our house in the future.
I hope my instructions are helpful for you. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask them. Feel free to use the comment function for this, so that everyone can read along.
I am so looking forward to the last late summer days with our self-built garden table from old wooden planks.